Review: Dire Distraction

Reviewed by Jaimie

Avery Solomon is the leader of A-Tac, a black-ops division of the CIA that uses their jobs at a university as their cover. He has saved countless numbers of people but still harbours a lot of guilt over the death of his wife 14 years ago in a car bomb in Iraq. During a mission in Afghanistan, a computer hard drive is recovered which produces what appears to be a photograph of his wife with a calendar behind her indicating that she is in fact still alive. Solomon sets off for Southeast Asia without the back-up of his team, on a quest to find out the truth. There he teams up with Sydney Price, an undercover operative who poses as a wilderness guide.

I had read the first two books of this series and then for whatever reason did not keep up with it. After reading this installment I cannot remember why! Sparks fly right off the bat between Avery and Sydney, but considering he is on a mission to find out if his wife is alive, they are slow to act on it. While journeying through the jungle, we find out plenty of background information on both characters and together they begin to heal some of their old wounds.

Sydney is the type of female heroine that I love – she’s strong, can kick some ass and she knows it. That being said she does have a soft side and insecurities that we all deal with. Her views on love are fairly negative as she grew up in a home where her parents were utterly in love and devoted to each other, which resulted in a very lonely childhood for her. She convinces herself that she enjoys her solo life, not relying on anyone, but after witnessing the closeness between Solomon and his team, her outlook starts to change. I was also happy to see that Avery didn’t turn into a macho, domineering man who demanded that Sydney give up what she loved to do, all in the name of keeping her safe. He has confidence in her abilities and this raised him up several notches in my opinion.

I liked that the connection between Avery and Sydney wasn’t fast tracked because it wouldn’t have fit with their back stories. It also made it more believable once they finally did act on the attraction. I also liked that A-Tac welcomed Sydney into the fold without being difficult or giving her a hard time. Even though I haven’t kept up with the series I was able to pick up this book and get right into the story with no problems. That being said, I definitely plan to go back and catch up on all that I missed with this team. If you like a fast paced story, strong heroine, ultimate “good guy”, and hot romance I definitely recommend this one!

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Comments

Nice review. I read the one before this but that one was the first one I’d ever read and Avery was a massively intriguing character to me from that book. I’ve been looking forward to his book since then. I might just have to pick it up.